The renowned photographer Angelika Platen has been creating haunting and sensitive portraits for over five decades. With an extraordinary feeling for young, up-and-coming and now famous artists, she photographed the art scene at fairs and exhibition openings in the 1960s and early 1970s. At the beginning of the 2000s, after a long creative break, she increasingly turned her attention to female artists. Inspired by the MeToodebate, she reflects on why she photographed so few female artists when she was younger. She decides to concentrate on portraits of women for a year in order to make up for this omission in her photographic oeuvre.

The exhibition My women is dedicated to several generations of national and international artists with intensive and approachable photographs, both from the documentary and artistic fields, such as the portraits of Hanne Darboven, Sylvie Fleury, Monica Bonvicini and Pola Sieverding. Inspiring and poetic titles always complement her photographs.

Angelika Platen, born in Heidelberg in 1942, works as a freelance photographer for print media and journalist for The time and ran Gunter Sachs' gallery in Hamburg from 1972 to 1975. She had her first solo exhibition in 1969. Her photographic portraits have been published widely and are part of public collections in national and European museums.

Ideals of beauty, sexuality and the relationship to one's own body, gender stereotypes, identity, equality and social taboos, generational conflicts and relationships, the feeling of (powerlessness), shame and freedom of choice - after more than a hundred years of the women's movement, these topics are still highly topical.

Franziska Becker, Julia Bernhard, Lisa Frühbeis, Mia Oberländer and Paulina Stulin approach these subjects in their picture narratives in a unique way. Using individual styles and formats, the five illustrators visualize real-life stories from a female perspective. Their protagonists break out of traditional role models and thereby question society's expectations of women. With a keen eye and impressive ease, the artists depict everyday problems and humorously take the game of gender roles to the extreme.

Using original drawings from the 1980s to the present day, the exhibition shows how the illustrators expose internalized thought and behavior patterns in their comics. Their female characters exude authenticity and invite you to think along, laugh along and empathize. The range of works presented extends from impressive individual images to serial image sequences from comic columns and graphic novels.

As a brilliant double talent, as a drawing author and writing illustrator, Walter Moers has invented a wide variety of characters like no other in Germany and told their stories with wit and subtlety. Captain Bluebear, who spins sea yarns and whose tall tales amuse children and others to this day; the sometimes pitch-black humor that THE comic cult figure of the 1990s, the politically completely incorrect Little Asshole, exudes; or the incomprehensible new continent of Zamonia, which Moers equips with great ease with subtle, sometimes even bizarre humor around his alter ego Hildegunst von Mythenmetz. A cosmos of comic art like no other.

All of these characters and stories are presented in original drawings, puppets and animations, with particular attention to the special humor of their creator. Moers caricatures the museum's operations with more than just Asshole in Oil. It promises to be an enjoyable tour!

The exhibition is sponsored by the Stadtsparkasse Oberhausen and the Friends of the LUDWIGGALERIE. Cultural partner is WDR 3.

Exhibition flyer

Greetings from Walter Moers

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank you very much for all the attention and appreciation you have shown me and my work, which has now taken shape in this exhibition.

I would especially like to thank Christine Vogt and her wonderful team for the effort and work that such an exhibition entails. I felt every minute of the collaboration and the enthusiasm with which everyone here in the Ludwiggalerie works. And I would like to thank the entire city community here in Oberhausen, which makes it possible for you to look at my entire work with me and for me to look at it with you and ask yourselves: What is there to laugh about?

Museums are generally places where things are pretty serious. Important cultural assets are preserved there, the past is sometimes dealt with and even mourning is carried out.

When you think of museums, you conjure up images of people walking with measured steps through quiet rooms, stopping now and then in front of a work of art or exhibit and talking about it in hushed tones. People don't usually laugh in museums. But why?

In discussions between Christine Vogt and me, the idea of ​​a MOERSEUM arose as a place where laughter is not only expressly permitted, but even curated, even provoked. Where, among many other aspects, creative humor in all its content-related and formal manifestations is to be cultivated and placed at the center. A place where one is not only confronted with illustrative art in an interesting way, but is also entertained in an amusing way.

Of course, this is still just an idea, just a pious wish that has to go through many stages and overcome many hurdles before it can be fulfilled. This exhibition can therefore only be the beginning of a hopeful project.

I hope that from this evening onwards there will be as much giggling, snorting and perhaps even uncontrollable laughter as possible in this castle. I hope it will continue until the doctor comes. Because then we will know that we are on the right track with our idea.

With this in mind, I wish you and all visitors after you a lot of fun this evening – in keeping with our
Motto:

MAKE LAUGH – NOT WAR!

Yours, Walter Moers.

It is not just since Brexit that the world has been looking critically at Europe's largest island state. Hardly any other country in the world is so heavily stereotyped as Great Britain. However, the picturesque coasts of southern England, the royal family and Mr Bean cannot hide the dramatic reality that the country has had to deal with for decades: social and societal upheaval, high unemployment and political instability.

In this exhibition, 28 British photographers from three generations examine these and other highly topical issues such as social criticism, migration, gender identity, community and diversity in serial works. The stories behind the photographs are inextricably linked to the people depicted in them or the photographers' personal experiences.

With early black-and-white photographs from the 1970s, they document everyday life in the big city and on the coast. In the 1980s and 1990s, the photographers moved away from classic documentary photography and opened up to an artistic perspective and their own visual language, which is certainly humorous and satirical. From the 2000s to the present day, younger female positions have turned to photography as an artistic medium and deal with personal identity issues or the effects of the corona pandemic, among other things, in impressive (self-)portraits.

All 28 female photographers are united by their unbridled desire for artistic, social and societal autonomy alongside their male colleagues.

With 220 works from 29 series, the exhibition provides impressive proof of this. It is curated by Ralph Goertz in cooperation with IKS PHOTO.

Hipgnosis, the legendary British photo design studio founded by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson, designed more than 1967 record covers for international bands and musicians between 1984 and 400, a number of which have now achieved iconic status in music history.

The legendary album cover for The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, created by Hipgnosis, has just turned 50 years old. The two designers, who are friends of Pink Floyd, have created more covers for the band. The famous motifs on the LPs Houses of the Holy and Presence by Led Zeppelin, Elegy by The Nice and Deceptive Bands by 10cc were also designed by them and are now world famous.

Powell and Thorgerson named their studio after a slogan that Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd is said to have sprayed over their studio door. They immediately liked the contradictory, ironic union of the meanings of hip - new, cool, trendy - and gnosis - ancient Greek for knowledge. Their design ideas are similarly paradoxical and humorous. It is also noticeable that they rarely work with portraits of the musicians. Many LP covers are clearly inspired by surrealist works of art, in which there are enigmatic moments that invite a second look. Some motifs were created through experiments with the Polaroid technique, others through associations with the album titles. There are therefore entire stories hidden behind the final photographs.

The exhibition explores these by bringing together the duo's most important designs and presenting them in an impressive way on over 120 large-format limited edition art prints and photographs. In addition, more than 20 original record sleeves are on display. These exhibits are complemented by the new documentary Eclipse by Aubrey Powell for Pink Floyd on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, as well as a sound walk that brings the music to life.

An exhibition by the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen in cooperation with Browse Gallery Berlin. The exhibition is curated by John Colton, Browse Gallery Berlin and Hipgnosis founder Aubrey Powell.

Ride the lucky dragon Fuchur through Phantásien, meet the childlike empress, sit with Bastian in the attic, accompany Momo on her escape from the time thieves, brew the satanarchaeo-lugenial-coholic wish punch or experience an adventure with Jim Knopf and Lukas. These world-famous stories have been inspiring and touching for decades. Fantasy and reality meet again and again and one thing is clear: it is never too late to immerse yourself in Michael Ende's masterpieces!

A wide range of illustrators and draftsmen have translated Ende's literary cosmos of fantastic characters and heroic figures into visually perceptible image worlds. FJ Tripp, who also gave form to Otfried Preußler's Robber Hotzenplotz, created icons of book art with Jim Knopf, Lukas and Emma. Regina Kehn developed the crazy ensemble of characters in the Wunschpunsch and Roswitha Quadflieg gave the Neverending Story its legendary initials. On the occasion of the book's 40th anniversary, it is the artist Sebastian Meschenmoser who is giving this world-famous story a new look. The colorful oil paintings created for it can be seen in the exhibition.

The artists also use a wide variety of drawing styles, techniques and visual languages, so that the impressive overview not only shows Michael Ende's extensive work, but also icons of the art of illustration. With over 300 original drawings, paintings and book editions, this magnificent world of images can be discovered for the first time in an exhibition in Oberhausen.

In addition, a separate exhibition area is dedicated to the painter and father of Michael Ende, Edgar Ende, with paintings and drawings. Michael Ende's heroes will also be featured as puppets from the Düsseldorf Marionette Theater.

Many of Ende's stories have been adapted into other media: audio books and plays, theatre, musical theatre and puppet show adaptations, films and cartoons, as well as merchandising products, all testify to the immense popularity of the characters.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Stadtsparkasse Oberhausen and the Friends of the LUDWIGGALERIE. The cultural partner is WDR 3.

The LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen is celebrating its silver anniversary and is inviting a collection focus of its namesake to the Ruhr area! For the first time, the exquisite and original porcelain collection of Peter and Irene Ludwig will be presented in Oberhausen, with a theme that fits perfectly here: the representation of professions.
For decades, the Aachen couple, patrons, collected porcelain and took particular pleasure in depicting human activities. The 18th century in particular loved to show the farmer and the quack, the shepherdess and the tailor, the hat seller and the dancing master, Columbine and the soldier in the finest Meissen porcelain.
These lower professions are put together as large table decorations for the amusement of noble parties. Court society loves masked balls and rural festivals, the so-called fêtes champêtres, and likes to slip into the costumes of the shepherdess and the shepherd themselves.
The precious porcelains take on the role of inspiration for entertainment at banquets. But scenes and groups of figures can also be used beyond the actual representation. The reaper is the personification of summer and can represent thanks for a rich harvest. In conjunction with other
In the figures it becomes a symbol of the earth among the four elements. In the cycle of the seasons it symbolizes summer. Such ambiguities mean that the figures are used in many different ways. Today this "white gold", as the porcelain was also called, is kept in Bamberg.
In addition to a tribute to Peter and Irene Ludwig, there is also a look back at the last 25 years. Numerous exhibitions with items from the extensive Ludwig collection have been realized, as well as presentations on comics and caricatures, photography and the landmarks that are so important for the Ruhr region. A best-of will be awarded during the exhibition.

With Barbara Klemm, the LUDWIGGALERIE presents one of the most important photographers of the post-war period. Her impressive black-and-white images document people and events in Germany and the world over more than five decades. Klemm worked as an editorial photographer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ from 1970 to 2005 and traveled not only through divided Germany, but also across four continents.

Many of her photographs are now considered icons of photography history and represent historical moments such as the student revolts, the socialist fraternal kiss or reunification.

Growing up in an artist's household - her father was the Karlsruhe painter Fritz Klemm - she was given a special eye for composition and structure from an early age. Many of her productions reflect a good knowledge of art history and an empathetic approach to people. Her portraits of artists show her to be a great portraitist.

When the American Linda Eastman (1941–1998) began taking photographs in the mid-1960s, she was immediately drawn into the rock and pop scene. A press invitation opened the doors for her to the Rolling Stones promotional party at the SS Sea Panther on the Hudson River. This is where her unusual career begins: "It was the time when Jimi Hendrix would come into my apartment out of the blue and I would go out to dinner with Jim Morrison in Chinatown. Once I bought peanut butter with Janis Joplin for a midnight feast, another time I would ride the subway through the city with Jackson Browne." She also met the Beatles and thus her future husband Paul. She watched the creation of the famous cover of Abbey Road, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and gives an intimate insight into the McCartneys' family life.

But it is above all her pictures of the great music stars of the late 1960s that still shape our visual memory of this era, which was freeing itself from moral labels. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Nico and Brian Jones, The Doors and The Who, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan are portrayed by her with naturalness and often with great dynamism. The exhibition uses photos from the sixties to show striking moments from this intense musical era.

In addition to the photographs, the theme of music and its artistic expression is explored in depth. The design of record covers, which also changed fundamentally from the mid-1960s onwards, is presented in a separate exhibition area. Iconic designs such as Hipgnosis' The Dark Side of the Moon for Pink Floyd, Klaus Voormanns Revolver for the Beatles or Andy Warhol's Sticky Fingers for the Rolling Stones have cult status today. A sound walk specially put together for the exhibition allows visitors to immerse themselves musically in the sixties.

Linda McCartney has taken her camera with her on all her travels. Her Roadworks expressively show the observations of people and spaces. Again and again it is the view in the rearview mirror that fascinates. And finally, McCartney has also become creative in the experimental field. Her Sunprints show images exposed by daylight, by the sun, ranging from still lifes to portraits.

The exhibition was developed with the “Reichelt and Brockmann Art Foundation” Mannheim.

"My territory is the territory" was the motto of the Essen-based photographer Manfred Vollmer for decades. And yet his interests and his photographic work went much further. His first major project, his final thesis at the Folkwang School in Essen, took him to Italy in the late 1960s, where he captured the unusual customs of local church festivals on camera. Since 1970 he has worked as a freelance photographer, mainly for weekly and daily newspapers and trade unions. His work is - and this can still be seen today - so convincing that he has received awards for it. In 1978 he traveled to Brittany to report as a photojournalist on the oil spill caused by the wreck of the American tanker Amoco Cadiz. For this he received first prize in the 1979 World Press Photo competition in the "News Picture Stories" category.

But it is his photographs from the Ruhr region, his participatory reports on labor disputes in the 1980s, his accompaniment of workers in various industries, and his concern for the living conditions of so-called guest workers that are probably the most defining elements of his work. When the Ruhr region became the Capital of Culture in 2010, he contributed to a new image of the Ruhr region with his sometimes monumental pictures and created icons that still stand for the structural and cultural change in the region today. The LUDWIGGALERIE is now dedicating an overview of the work of this important image finder.

Smoking chimneys, industrial wastelands, striking workers: numerous themes from the Ruhr region can be found and encountered in the photography, paintings and graphics of Rudolf Holtappel and Walter Kurowski. Since 2017, the two artistic legacies have enriched the LUDWIGGALERIE collection, have already been presented individually in retrospect and are now facing each other for the first time in a joint exhibition.

The two artists' main themes are also shown in separate monographic rooms. Rudolf Holtappel's entire artistic range is presented through motifs from department store photography, theater shots and industrial sets. Posters, caricatures and drawings demonstrate the diversity of Walter Kurowski's work.

Rudolf Holtappel (1923–2013), chronicler of the Ruhr region, worked as a freelance photojournalist and photographer after his master's degree in photography in 1950. The Oberhausen resident used his imagery to shape the visual appearance of the Karstadt department store group (1964–1995) and numerous industrial companies on the Rhine and Ruhr for decades, including Henkel (1974–2002). His photographs influenced the image of the Oberhausen Theater in the Büch era (1961–1970) and Weise era (1992–2003) as well as the city picture books of well-known publishers (Carl Lange Verlag/Mercator-Verlag).

As a cultural legend and the only Oberhausen city artist, Walter Kurowski (1939–2017) has been a force in the city's artistic and musical scene for over 50 years, painting and drawing his way into its memory. The award-winning graduate of the Folkwang School used his art as one of Germany's most important caricaturists to fight alongside workers for peace and justice and against oppression and exploitation in the 1970s and 1980s. As a poster designer, he received commissions for cultural events, political organizations and unions for decades.

Over 50 comic artists from German-speaking countries open their drawers and provide insight into previously unpublished material. In the exhibition, around 300 frames with 500 drawings can be discovered that no one has ever seen before! Newcomers meet well-known and famous artists and make it clear: They all have projects that have remained unfinished so far. Some were rejected by the publisher or even censored. Sometimes there was not enough time or leisure to pursue project ideas and matters close to their hearts to completion. Other stories, however, are finished and ready to be printed in large editions.

This compilation of different comic genres, drawing styles and trends provides an insightful overview of German-language comic history. Historical originals such as posthumously published illustrated stories by comic pioneer Wilhelm Busch are early examples of sequential art. Erich Ohser's drawings from the 1930s indicate the difficult state of comics at that time. Unpublished sheets by important pioneers such as Willi Kohlhoff and Hansrudi Wäscher illustrate the breakthrough of the small booklets in the 1950s and pave the way for comic greats such as Isabel Kreitz, Ulli Lust and Ralf König. Brösels Werner provides the mass-market entertainment of the 1990s.

The diversity of today's comics scene is blurring genres, styles and publishing methods. There don't have to be any boundaries and the content can no longer be categorised in fixed categories such as action, fantasy or western. Matthias Schultheiss draws a large-format portrait of Adolf Hitler in the First World War, while Sheree Domingo raises questions about gene editing and climate protection. Goethe's Faust is given a completely new way of expressing itself, both visually and linguistically, by Atak and Fil, and Nicolas Mahler is reducing our commentary society to absurdity with a humorous series. Discover hidden masterpieces that tell a little history of comics and a little history of the world!

The starting point for the thematic one-room exhibition on the motif of the Trinitarian Pietà in the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen, which will subsequently also be shown in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen, are five late medieval sculptures from the Aachen Museum. Among these is a Swabian piece from the Peter and Irene Ludwig collection, which was transferred to the Aachen Municipal Collection with the large donation in 1977. For the first time, this sculpture and its special pictorial theme are brought into focus and discussed in its iconographic context. The motif of the Trinitarian Pietà refers to the image of God the Father presenting the body of his son or the living-dead Man of Sorrows to the viewer. The spirit dove also belongs thematically to this type of image, although this has not been preserved in a number of works of art. This form of the Trinity image is often found in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period in sculpture, panel and book painting, but also in graphics. In the academic essay "Trinitarian Pietà - A late medieval image concept and its continued impact in the context of the Reformation and Catholic Reform" by Dr. Dagmar Preising, the history of this image motif in painting, sculpture and graphics is traced, bringing together numerous, lesser-known pieces. These are classified according to type. In addition to grouping the examples, it is important to highlight the iconographic and functional context of these Trinity representations. The significance of the Trinitarian Pietà in the context of passion mysticism and sacrament cult in the late Middle Ages is also explained, and a look is taken at the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The alternative terms commonly used for this type of image, such as mercy seat and Notgottes, are also discussed. The sculpture from the Ludwig collection forms the center of this exhibition. Other depictions of the Trinitarian Pietà and pieces with closely related subjects, such as the so-called Mercy Seat with God the Father holding the crucifix, or the Angel Pietà, are grouped around these. The topicality of the Trinitarian image theme in the 15th and 16th centuries is illustrated, and its continued existence in the Baroque period is visualized.

The shoe is one of the items of clothing that has always moved people. Not only a remedy against cold and heat, injury and dirt, but above all the shoe is a projection surface for social status, "walking through the world" and of course erotic fantasies. The range of often unusual artistic representations of footwear in this exhibition extends from antiquity to current works, from the Middle Ages to Mel Ramos. The absence of the shoe, the imprint of the shoe and the symbolic meaning of the shoe are presented in artistic expressions, just as a separate chapter is dedicated to the red shoe.
It is the first exhibition to bring together and juxtapose positions from the legendary footprint of Buddha to the shoe creations of Andy Warhol. Shoes and cult as well as cult shoes form a link; St. Hedwig, whose attribute is shoes, meets the Adidas All Stars on the feet of Freddie Mercury. New perspectives on some familiar images open up. A look at the foot offers surprising discoveries and insights. A sound walk accompanies the depictions and Nancy Sinatra is not the only one who knows: These Boots Are Made for Walkin'...
The focus on shoes in the LUDWIGGALERIE is on the occasion of the installation of the steel sculpture by the well-known German pop artist Heiner Meyer in front of the main building of Oberhausen Castle in March 2021. As an "exhibition within the exhibition", special attention is paid to his artistic work. High heels and fast cars, over-the-knee boots and nail polish, but also noble orchids, such as the "lady's shoe", exude a touch of luxury. Expensive shoes and the sexy women's legs they shape reinforce the temptations of advertising. The glamorous things that make up the dazzling work of this multifaceted artist show a strong position on shoes. Pop art in stiletto format!

RED HEELS – a sculpture by Heiner Meyer for the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen as part of the exhibition ART ABOUT SHOES

The concrete base in front of Oberhausen Castle on the main traffic artery Konrad-Adenauer-Allee stood empty for a long time. Until 2013, the sculpture "Head Through Belly" by the American pop artist Keith Haring stood here. Museum director Dr. Christine Vogt commissioned the internationally known German pop artist Heiner Meyer to sketch a sculpture, and RED HEELS was the result. Two years of planning have now passed and the major project is in its final stages. Jutta Kruft-Lohrengel, the first chairwoman of the Friends of the LUDWIGGALERIE eV, enlisted the help of various trades. Our thanks go to Dr.-Ing. Christoph Diekmann and the companies Franken Apparatebau, Klöckner & Co. and Westdeutsche Farben GmbH for the realization of the RED HEELS sculpture.

Otfried Preußler (1923–2013) is one of the most important and influential authors of children's and young adult books in the German-speaking world. With stories such as The Robber Hotzenplotz, The Little Witch and The Little Ghost, the author has created characters since the 1950s that continue to shape generations of young people and are an indispensable part of children's rooms around the world. In total, he wrote over 35 books, which delighted readers worldwide with a total circulation of more than 50 million copies. During his creative period, Preußler worked with numerous illustrators. They illustrated his stories and brought the characters to life by using their own personal style and ideas. The illustrations by FJ Tripp, which give the robber Hotzenplotz his distinctive appearance, are particularly well-known. The woodcut-like sepia drawings that Herbert Holzing created for Krabat remained consistent across numerous editions. The unmistakable appearance of the little witch, but also of the little water sprite, is thanks to the artist Winnie Gebhardt. Rarely shown original drawings of Hörbe, made by Otfried Preußler himself, can also be seen.
Many of Preußler's stories are also adapted into other media: audio books, theater adaptations, films and games testify to their immense popularity. A total of 300 original drawings as well as film props and photographs come together.
Get to know the entire Preußler cosmos in the exhibition! Take the opportunity to discover the lesser-known characters and let yourself and your children or grandchildren be fascinated by Otfried Preußler's stories!
The exhibition is sponsored by the Stadtsparkasse Oberhausen and the Friends of the LUDWIGGALERIE. The cultural partner is WDR 3.

"Gray - only three times a year a clear view," is how Rudolf Holtappel (1923-2013) describes the Ruhr region and photographs white laundry in front of smoking chimneys, dramas on theater stages and people consuming in department stores. For the illustrated books published by Mercator-Verlag, Holtappel stages industry, city and people.

From 1961 to 1970 and from 1992 to 2003, Holtappel worked as a stage photographer in the Büch and Weise era at the Oberhausen Theater. His choice of special angles and his feeling for the right moment are just as evident in productions by Günther Büch, who brought Peter Handke's plays to the theater, as in performances by Klaus Weise in the 1990s.

Holtappel worked for Karstadt and Henkel for years and his photographs played a decisive role in shaping the image of the companies. From 1974 to 2002, he photographed factory halls, products, production processes in factories and people at their workplaces for Henkel. Among the numerous prizes and awards and a purchase by the German Bundestag are the photographs of the Henkel factory kitchens. For the first time, photographs taken for Henkel are being presented to the public.

Holtappel, who completed his master's degree in photography in 1950, uses old fine printing processes (salt prints, cyanotypes and bromo oil prints) and camera materials in a surprising and experimental way. For the first time, the exhibition provides a comprehensive insight into the diversity of Rudolf Holtappel's (1923-2013) work. Holtappel called Oberhausen his home for over 50 years. In 2017, the city of Oberhausen acquired his estate, which is kept in the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen. The starting point of the exhibition is his chronological archive consisting of around 360.000 negatives in black and white and color.

Supported by the Regional Cultural Fund of the Rhineland Regional Association and the Friends of the LUDWIGGALERIE. The cultural partner is WDR 3.

When the American Linda Eastman (1941–1998) began taking photographs in the mid-1960s, she was immediately drawn into the rock and pop scene. A press invitation opened the doors to the Rolling Stones promotional party on the SS Sea Panther on the Hudson River. This was where her unusual career began. She also met the Beatles and her future husband Paul. She observed the creation of the famous Abbey Road cover and gave an intimate insight into the McCartneys' family life.

But it is her pictures of the great music stars of the late 1960s that still shape our visual memory today. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Nico and Brian Jones, The Doors and The Who, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan are all captured in her images with naturalness. The exhibition uses photos from the sixties to show striking moments from this intense musical era.

In addition to the photographs, the theme of music and its artistic expression is explored. A separate exhibition area is dedicated to the design of record covers. Iconic designs such as Hipgnosis' The Dark Side of the Moon for Pink Floyd, Klaus Voormann's Revolver for the Beatles or Andy Warhol's Sticky Fingers for the Rolling Stones have cult status today. A sound walk specially put together for the exhibition allows you to immerse yourself musically in the sixties.

In addition to her music photos, Linda McCartney also took her camera with her on all her travels. Her roadworks expressively show her observations of people and spaces. And finally, McCartney has become creative in the experimental field. Sunprints are the pictures exposed by daylight, which range from still lifes to portraits. The exhibition was created with photographs from the collection of Ina Brockmann and Peter Reichelt, who put together their collection in cooperation with Linda McCartney in the early 1990s.

"Look, here he is, ugh! Struwwelpeter!" In 1844, the doctor Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann not only invented the story of the boy who would not let anyone comb his hair or cut his nails, but also invented numerous other characters in this style. Alongside Suppenkaspar and Hanns Guck-in-die-Luft, Fidgety Philip also shapes German usage to this day. The classic has inspired artists to create their own versions for 175 years. Struwwelpeter, but also Paulinchen, Konrad, Hanns and Friederich can be found everywhere - sometimes at first glance, sometimes after closer inspection. The themes of the pictures are still highly topical today and sometimes political. In Hoffmann's story of the black boys, the big Nikolas dips the xenophobic boys in a large inkwell as punishment. In 2013, Luise Bofinger addressed the racism depicted in this story with an unmistakable message. Mangaka David Füleki, on the other hand, gives Struwwelpeter several appearances in two different comics. Hans Witte takes up Heinrich Hoffmann's text in a reduced and purely typographical way. With pointed humor, Anke Kuhl's book Lola rass presents several children who despair at everyday dangers, but can also grow from them. Struwwelpetriads - international, shrill, political, kitschy, off-kilter, pointed, sometimes in the spirit of Hoffmann, whether with the original text or rewritten, re-imagined, rewritten or given new characters.

In addition, curious objects, merchandise and records testify to the high relevance to everyday life. A separate exhibition area traces Hoffmann's portrait and shows his work in the context of the Biedermeier period. More than 100 books, drawings, illustrations, paintings and objects from the multifaceted and international Sauer collection illustrate the history and development of the topic.

The Hollywood Icons exhibition is dedicated to Hollywood's Golden Era. It shows those photographers whose pictures are still known today: from silent film legend Charlie Chaplin to brilliant performers of the early talkies such as Marlene Dietrich and post-war giants such as Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. In the early 1920s, the film industry is based in and around Los Angeles. Everyone flocks to California to seek fame and fortune. Garbo comes from Sweden, Dietrich from Germany, Hedy Lamarr from Austria, Chaplin and Cary Grant come from England, but it is Hollywood that helps each of them achieve international fame.
Hollywood Icons also presents the then-unknown portrait and still photographers who work unseen behind the scenes, but whose glamorous photographs are crucial to the fame of the stars and the films. The images of the movie stars are the work of cinematographers who work brilliantly to promote the Hollywood style around the world.
John Kobal has studied this Hollywood material intensively. He started out as a film lover, then became a journalist, writer and an outstanding film historian. The photographs in this exhibition come from his collection. The exhibition primarily shows black and white photographs, but there are also color photographs among the works. Over 200 photos from the John Kobal Foundation bring together the big names of Hollywood. A reunion with well-known faces from Judy Garland to Fred Astaire, from James Dean to Elizabeth Taylor.

The starting point for the iconographic exhibition Anna teaches Maria to read - The cult of Anne around 1500 is a high-quality and unique French stone sculpture from the mid-15th century, which is part of the Peter and Irene Ludwig collection. This sculpture was exhibited as a permanent loan in the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum from 1994 and became the property of the city of Aachen in 2011 through the legacy of Irene Ludwig. It shows the enthroned Anna teaching the little Maria standing next to her how to read, a pictorial theme that developed in the context of the veneration of Anne. The subject appeared in manuscripts as early as the 13th and early 14th centuries and attracted increasing attention in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period as the veneration of Anne increased. It was not until the Baroque period, however, that the theme gained general popularity, which lasted until the 19th century. In the period around 1500, when the cult of Anne reached its peak, the instruction of Mary was still a rare pictorial theme compared to the far more popular and frequently occurring depiction of the Third Anne.

The exhibition focuses on the sculpture from the Ludwig collection, which has so far been considered a rare find. Other teachings of Mary are grouped around this figure, the later life of the adult Mary is illuminated, and other important motifs from the veneration of Anne are shown.

England is considered the cradle of Pop Art and has produced numerous unusual positions on the phenomenon of the then truly revolutionary new art movement. In addition to motifs from everyday life, it is above all the idea of ​​art for everyone. Masterpieces are created in large numbers through the medium of printmaking, through edition art and multiples. There are favorite themes such as television, advertising or cars. An entire attitude to life is reflected and music plays a decisive role. This is particularly taken into account in this exhibition, with a separate section dedicated to record cover designs such as those by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth for the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper.

The Düsseldorf lawyer Heinz Beck, whose collection is kept in the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen, has assembled an outstanding collection of works from this period. For the first time, the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen is showing a selection of British Pop Art from this unique collection with its special and idiosyncratic variations.

Ivor Abrahams I Peter Blake I Derek Boshier I Anthony Canham I Patrick Caulfield I Harold Cohen I Ian Colverson I Antony Donaldson I Michael English I Richard Hamilton I Jann Haworth I Dick Higgins I David Hockney I David Inshaw I Bill Jacklin I Allen Jones I David King I RB Kitaj I Gerald Laing I Les Levine I David AJ Miller I Malcolm Morley I Robin Page I Eduardo Paolozzi I Peter Phillips I Tom Phillips I Patrick Procktor I John Salt I Colin Self I Richard Smith I Joe Tilson

The LUDWIGGALERIE is celebrating its 20th birthday with great gratitude and jubilation. The gestures of such emotions can - of course - also be found in works of art. And so this is the basic theme under which masterpieces from the Peter and Irene Ludwig collection are brought together in the LUDWIGGALERIE. Equipped with international loans, non-verbal communication, silent poetry, as Leonardo da Vinci called art, is explored.
In keeping with the spirit of the collector couple, works from different times and regions of the world enter into a dialogue. The range extends from antiquity to the present day, from pre-Columbian art to the European Middle Ages and much further. The question of what unites or separates things internally has always been a central one for the Ludwigs. The encounter of the works under a common question continues this interest. Gestures can be used to communicate well in a foreign country, or to achieve exactly the opposite: be careful if you shake your head in India!
Wolfgang Mattheuer's Step of the Century is certainly a key work for the gesture as a carrier of meaning in a political and social context. The passionate lover, on the other hand, fully embodies the force of the emotional effects that the opposite sex can trigger. Pointing and blessing gestures, victory signs and middle fingers, thumbs up or worker's fists are evidence of frequently used hand positions. Gestural painting is perfectly represented in the movements of Karl Otto Götz. But the thoughtful "resting one's head in one's hand" is also known throughout the world. This exhibition thus brings together astonishing gestures, including the Merkel diamond - performed by St. John.

Ι Ellen Auerbach Ι Belkis Ayón Manso Ι Heike Kati Barath Ι Georg Baselitz Ι Thomas Baumgärtel Ι Caspar Benedikt Beckenkamp Ι Matthias Beckmann Ι Anne Berning Ι Robert Bosshard Ι Claudio Bravo Ι Pieter Brueghel Ι Gudrun Brüne Ι Franz Anton Bustelli Ι Carlo Cignani Ι Cornelis van Dalem Ι Walter Dohmen Ι Albrecht Dürer Ι Erró Ι Semëon Natanovič Fajbisovič Ι Gérard Gasiorowski Ι Sighard Gille Ι Peter Gilles Ι Karl Otto Götz Ι Bob Gruen Ι Johannes Grützke Ι Eckart Hahn Ι Keith Haring Ι Xenia Hausner Ι Bernhard Heisig Ι Gottfried Helnwein Ι David Hockney Ι Ottmar Hörl Ι Lambert Hopfer Ι Thomas Huber Ι Daniel Josefsohn Ι Claudia Kaak Ι Kirsten Klöckner Ι Germaine Krull Ι Monika Lioba Lang Ι Roy Lichtenstein Ι Richard Lindner Ι André Lützen Ι Wolfgang Mattheuer Ι Dóra Maurer Ι Master of the Sinzig Calvary Ι Johann Peter Melchi or Ι Pedro de Mena Ι Heiner Meyer Ι Herman van der Mijn Ι Edvard Munch Ι Reiner Nachtwey Ι Ernst Wilhelm Nay Ι CO Paeffgen Ι Otto Pankok Ι AR Penck Ι Pablo Picasso Ι Raimondo Puccinelli Ι Marcanton Raimondi Ι Werner Reuber Ι Gerhard Richter Ι Johanna Roderburg Ι Mikhail Nikolaevič Romadin Ι James Rosenquist Ι Andreas Rosenthal Ι Svetlin Rusev Ι Laurentius Russinger Ι Gunter Sachs Ι Jürgen Schäfer Ι Egon Schiele Ι Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Ι Bernard Schultze Ι Emil Schumacher Ι Anton Sohn Ι Klaus Staeck Ι Volker Stelzmann Ι Franz von Stuck Ι David Teniers Ι Myriam Thyes Ι Hann Trier Ι Simon Troger Ι Werner Tübke Ι Dietmar Ullrich Ι Andy Warhol Ι Jacob Willemsz. de Wet Ι Su Xinping Ι Hanefi Yeter Ι Dmitry Zhilinsky Ι

Supported by the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Volksbank Rhein-Ruhr and the Friends of the LUDWIGGALERIE.

In October 1953, the German equivalent of Mickey Mouse began its triumphant advance. Initially published under the title Till Eulenspiegel, two young foxes named Fix & Foxi quickly appeared - initially as supporting characters - and immediately became audience favorites! The two soon received their own magazine and have long since become cult characters. A lively environment was created for the fox twins: the idyllic little town of Fuxholzen was also home to the lovable Uncle Fax, the inventive raven Knox, the conservative Grandma Eusebia, the clever Lupinchen and the greedy and lazy wolf Lupo. Rolf Kauka created an entire empire with his own characters for the local market. The exhibition illustrates the development of a cult brand - from the first naturalistic drawings to the creation of the world-famous comic characters Fix & Foxi. Like Walt Disney, Kauka did not draw the characters himself, but employed a whole group of illustrators who were subsumed under the Kauka trademark. From the 1960s onwards, Franco-Belgian licensed series such as Gaston, Astérix, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Spirou and Fantasio also appeared in the Fix & Foxi magazines.

The exhibition shows the great cosmos of Rolf Kauka (1917–2000) in original drawings, drafts, documents, contemporary booklets, short films and much more. With over 200 original drawings, it is the most comprehensive show to date.

The exhibition is based on the preliminary work of Gottfried Gusenbauer, Caricature Museum Krems and Dr. Gisela Vetter-Liebenow, Wilhelm Busch - German Museum for Caricature and Drawing, Hanover and was revised, significantly expanded and supplemented for Oberhausen. In cooperation with the Rolf Kauka estate, Dr. Stefan Piëch and Your Family Entertainment AG.

The subject of coal is certainly not a central one in the field of comics and cartoons, but there are still a whole series of unusual positions. The artists involved have spun stories about the "black gold" using very different approaches and implementations.
"The Ducks in the Ruhr" are underground, Hendrik Dorgathen's "Steel Golem" and Ulf K's "Hieronymus B." report on structural change. Dachma remembers the coal dust in the air and Ulrike Martens lets the "Kohlibri" rise. Isabel Kreitz does a didactic tour of mining in the Middle Ages, Ralf König's characters "Bodo and Heinz" focus on work safety underground and Thorsten Wieser tells a fictional artist's biography - from coal merchant to painting genius and back again. Jamiri is happy about the steel tapping, while Ralf Marczinczik and Steff Murschetz address the extremely difficult production conditions around 1900. But Walter Moers and Florian Biege show that coal can also play a role far beyond the Ruhr area, taking us to the distant kingdom of Zamonia.
Special guests include “Buddy Anton”, drawn by Otto Berenbrock, and “Grandpa Hausen” by Dirk Trachternach.
The fact that the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen can pursue its special field of the Popular Gallery in the canon of the RuhrKunstMuseen and observe the topic from a graphic point of view from a comic perspective shows how wide the range is that the art and museum scene of the region has to offer.

+ Otto Berenbrock + Dachma + Hendrik Dorgathen + Moritz Götze + Jan Gulbransson + Jamiri + Ulf K. + Ralf König + Isabel Kreitz/Peter Mrozek + Ralf Marczinczik + Ulrike Martens + Walter Moers/Florian Biege + Steff Murschetz + Dirk Trachternach + Thorsten Wieser +

Brigitte Bardot with blond mane, Yves Saint Laurent naked and Mick Jagger with a fur hood: icons of the film, fashion and music scene, photographed by superstars such as Richard Avedon, Bert Stern or Helmut Newton, bring the spirit of the 1960s and 70s to life in the LUDWIGGALERIE.
The unique combination of different disciplines of artistic expression dates back to this time: party and politics, fashion and music, art and body cult are portrayed by Warhol's Factory and the New York scene represented there, among others. Warhol elevated the mass media itself to art. Performance as an expression of the body, whether through music, dance or as an artistic action, experienced a heyday. And fashion, its models and their photographic manifestation were considered an art form of equal standing in this time of dazzling superficiality.
Photography plays an indispensable role in the formation of a star's image and provides (sometimes staged) insights into their private lives. The Beatles, having a pillow fight, Twiggy as the new androgynous supermodel and the stars of Hollywood reflect significant moments of the time in impressive portraits. Of course, the dark side of this lifestyle, such as self-destructive excesses through drugs or alcohol, are also visible. Warhol ironically describes the non-stop addiction to pleasure of the rich and beautiful and of artists as a social disease.
The exhibition shows mainly black and white photographs and impresses with its combination of museum-quality works and atmospheric paparazzi shots. Over 200 works from the Swiss Nicola Erni Collection bring together the who's who of celebrity society.

The exhibition was conceived by Dr. Ulrich Pohlmann, Munich City Museum/Photography Collection, and Ira Stehmann in collaboration with the Nicola Erni Collection.

Who doesn't know them, the wordless bulbous noses that have so much to say through facial expressions, gestures and interaction with their surroundings. Guillermo Mordillo, born in Buenos Aires in 1932, has been putting his spherical figures into pictures for decades and has covered a wide range of topics: people with their little peculiarities are lovingly portrayed, love with its trials and tribulations, animals with human characteristics, football and golf as well as political motifs find their way into the often surreal worlds of the illustrator.

In his pictures, he not only brings dissimilar things into harmony in a surreal way, but also lets his characters overcome the big and small obstacles of everyday life with ease. In keeping with his saying, "Humor is the spirit that pirouettes in the middle of the eternal dance of life," Mordillo uses this humor to turn world-weariness and melancholy into opposites, thereby offering viewers the opportunity to counter the pessimism of everyday life with optimism.

Over 150 of his rarely shown originals are brought together in the exhibition and provide an insight into the work of the internationally active artist who has received numerous awards. Pictures from creative phases in Buenos Aires, Lima, New York, Paris and Monaco offer an overview of his diverse work.

For the first time in 25 years, a comprehensive exhibition in a German museum is showing a retrospective selection of his originals. In addition to some black-and-white drawings from his early years, numerous current, colorful imagery is also on display in the LUDWIGGALERIE.

In cooperation with the Cartoon Museum Krems and Guillermo Mordillo.

With the New York photographer Sam Shaw (1912–1999), the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen is once again presenting one of the great image finders of the 20th century. His often spontaneous motifs achieved world fame and made photography history. The shot of Marilyn Monroe from The Seven Year Itch with the high-flying pleated skirt is still one of the most frequently reproduced images today.
Sam Shaw's career began as a photographer for Collier's magazine. He became famous with the reportage How America Lives, which showed the many faces of everyday American life in the 1940s - far from the glitz and glamour of his later Hollywood photographs.
The portraits of stars, artists and intellectuals of this time fill numerous covers of magazines such as Life or Look and still shape our visual memory today.
Film is the great model for his shots. There are often unusual angles that are reminiscent of camera settings for film sequences. His additional interest in painting is not only evident in portraits of artists, but also in downright painterly shots taken with long-focus lenses. The photographs are narrative and often arranged as a series. It doesn't matter whether he accompanies Sophia Loren on a day of filming or follows children playing with the camera.
In collaboration with the Shaw Family Archives, New York, a comprehensive retrospective with around 230 black and white photographs is on display in Oberhausen. In addition to the classics, thematic focal points from his 60 years of work are highlighted in areas such as sport, portraiture, crime and film.

Art and buying, two things that are closely related and yet seem to be far apart. At the turn of the Middle Ages to the modern era, Albrecht Dürer was one of the first art entrepreneurs. The fashions of the art market have been reflected over the centuries in overpaintings or reinterpretations of themes. The question of original, copy and fake is raised again and again. Large speculative bubbles such as the tulip mania of the 17th century link the art and money markets.

The 20th century then turned all traditions on their head. Marcel Duchamp declared industrial goods to be art, Andy Warhol and the representatives of Pop Art included supermarket products in their pictures. And the behavior of people when shopping is also not only shown in Rudolf Holtappel's photo series people in the department store When Gerhard Richter in his painting mother and daughter Although the photograph appears to show Brigitte Bardot shopping with her mother, the theme of shopping is combined with the most expensive painter on the current art market.

The 1960s attempted to break down barriers with new forms such as multiples and edition prints and to create a connection between art and life with the demand for "art for all". But the gap is getting bigger and bigger, the art market has been exploding for years and even the financial crisis has not been able to put a stop to this phenomenon. The fact that art has become the "most expensive luxury item in our culture" (Piroschka Dossi) is something that artists are also concerned about. There are also critical views on general consumer behavior and money, the means of payment for art and luxury, is also becoming part of the works or the medium of the images.

This wide-ranging exhibition, which brings together works from the 15th century to the present day, from copperplate engravings to video installations, now illuminates for the first time in this form the broad field that connects art and shopping.

We associate Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and their - like Uncle Scrooge - often very independent friends and relatives with the great Walt Disney and his huge factory. But who were the artists behind the Disney empire who invented the characters and their worlds and developed the Duckburg cosmos?
The Oberhausen exhibition presents the three old masters: The Mouse Man Floyd Gottfredson, who brought the mouse universe to us on Earth; Al Taliaferro, the still largely unknown artist of the daily newspaper strips with Donald and midwife of the nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and many other family members. As well as the highly revered founder of Duckwhacks and father of numerous characters such as Uncle Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose and the Beagle Boys, Carl Barks.
But the stories continue after the death of these three great illustrators, and this is also the subject of the Oberhausen presentation. Ulrich Schröder, who comes from Germany, now draws stories and, above all, covers about the mouse and the duck. The German Jan Gulbransson and the American Don Rosa let Donald continue to experience his adventures accompanied by outbursts of anger and to bathe in money with Uncle Scrooge. In original drawings and prints, many of which are being shown to the public for the first time, visitors can now immerse themselves in the cosmos of Duckburg››››Oberhausen››››.
The exhibition is one of the most comprehensive presentations to date on Donald, Mickey and their illustrators. In collaboration with the Ina Brockmann and Peter Reichelt Collection, Mannheim.

Regina Relang (Stuttgart 1906 – 1989 Munich) began her photographic career in Paris in the 1930s. She celebrated her first successes with reportage photographs taken during her travels through southern Europe. The physically demanding work of the porters in the port of Porto aroused her interest, as did a traditional Macedonian wedding in Galičnik. In the post-war period, Relang became Germany's leading fashion photographer. Her clients included well-known fashion designers such as Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent, and her photographs were published in contemporary fashion magazines such as constance, Mrs. or  Film and Woman printed.

In her photographs, which have been aptly described as "shop windows in motion", she combines fashion with everyday situations in an idiosyncratic and unusual way. The ruins of destroyed Munich serve as her backdrop, as does the colorful and bustling urban life of international fashion metropolises. With her own photographic style, Relang overcomes the boundaries between fashion and reportage photography. She embeds the latest collections in an everyday context or stages her models as star mannequins in the spirit of the glamorous film world. In the 1960s, her photographic perspective changed and she increasingly photographed in the studio.

The exhibition spans the spectrum from early travel reports of the 1930s to fashion photography of the post-war period to photographs for glossy magazines such as The lady or  VOGUE. It presents Relang's life's work and at the same time reflects the history of German fashion photography over half a century.

This exhibition is the first time that a selection from Regina Relang's estate from the photography collection of the Munich City Museum will be on display outside of southern Germany.

The exhibition, in cooperation with the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen, is once again devoted to an important piece from the Peter and Irene Ludwig collection. The oak panel, which was created around 1475 and is attributed to the Master of the Sinzig Calvary, deals with the subject of the ars bene moriendi, the central question of how to die properly in the Middle Ages.

For the first time, this panel is now being examined in detail stylistically and iconographically and placed in the thematic area of ​​the good death and the intercession (intercessions of Mary and Christ), which are connected in this picture. Other valuable loans such as the unique ars moriendi-Blockbuch of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz or the representation of the poor Lazarus from the Marks-Thomée collection, along with additional loans from the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, complement this concentrated one-room exhibition.

A parallel presentation to the exhibition American Pop Art shows the initially astonishing connections in content. The banners on such medieval panels, transcribed here for the first time for this show, are the forerunners of the speech bubbles so typical of comics. They also provide orientation through the reading direction and connection to the figures. Roy Lichtenstein's implementations are unthinkable without this. And the theme of death also plays a central role in Pop Art, just think of Andy Warhol's Death and Disaster-Series.

With the rise of Pop Art in America, not only everyday motifs such as comics, flags or soup cans became worthy of art. The question of the original and the cult of genius was also discussed – in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp’s successors – and led, among other things, to artists starting to present their screen prints, but also objects, as ars multiple, as masterpieces, en masse. Art for All is the motto that leads to its own expression and to idiosyncratic forms.

The Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen houses the collection of the Düsseldorf lawyer Heinz Beck, a magnificent collection of works from the 1960s and 70s. The special feature of this collection lies in Beck's preference for editions and multiples, which impressively reflects the desire of the time for a democratized art. For the first time, the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen is showing a selection of American Pop Art, which illustrates the special approach of not only a central figure such as Andy Warhol. Editions such as 7 in a box from 1966 or ten from leo castelli from 1967/68 provide insights into artist friendships and art market behavior.
Arman (Armand Fernandez), Art Workers Coalition, Richard Bernstein, Christo, Robert Cottingham, Allan D'Arcangelo, Jim Dine, Don Eddy, Richard Estes, Hans-Dietrich Froese, Ralph Goings, Robert Graham, Eila Hershon, Robert Indiana, Alain Jacquet, Jasper Johns, Howard Kanovitz, Allan Kaprow, Alex Katz, Edward Kienholz, RB Kitaj, Roy Lichtenstein, Liliane Lijn, Robert W. Munford, Lowel B. Nesbitt, Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist , Edward Ruscha, George Segal, Robert Stanley, Alan Turner, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann

Ralph Ruthe, Joscha Sauer and Flix (Felix Görmann) have been shaping the German comics and cartoon scene for years and their work clearly shows the transitions and boundaries of the medium.

Ralph Ruthe is particularly known for his daily catastrophes, which the protagonists in Shit happens A rich repertoire of the animal world - whether cow, hamster, vulture or lion - experiences hardships described in cartoons, trees and death stand out as particularly prominent characters. Ruthe has been working heavily with the moving image for some time. He turns his cartoons into animated films, which he himself adds voices, sound and music. He has currently developed a stage program with which he will tour Germany during the exhibition period.

Joscha Sauer's NICHTLUSTIG has now become a cult and trademark. A wide range of characters populate his cartoons. In addition to the suicidal lemmings, the Yetis and Mr. Riebmann, who lives in a wall, are just as popular as Death and his poodle, Fäkalini, ninjas, aliens and the scientists Wilson and Pickett. The moving image is also playing an increasingly important role for Sauer, and he is currently working on a series of animated films. All three artists regularly post new cartoons and comics on their websites.

Flix presents under the title heroic days small everyday situations, usually arranged in four boxes, onto the internet. While Ruthe and Sauer have chosen the cartoon, i.e. the single image, as their medium, Flix draws extensive comics, sometimes based on literary sources. Faust or  Don Quixote are retold here in a very original way. The beautiful daughters, which are currently being published as a book to accompany the exhibition, reflect observations of everyday life just like many of his other stories. And Ferdinand the Reporter Dog he regularly gives in Your mirror Appearance and imprint, while Ralph Ruthe invents the stories.

Roads, waterways, railway lines and overhead power lines structure and connect, separate and cut. They are the central design features of the Ruhr region. These large corridors shape the image of the region and are also currently giving rise to discussion. Is the construction of electricity pylons an indicator of the energy transition or a distortion of a landscape panorama? Does a direct motorway connection mean mobility and modernity or noise and danger? Various spatial profiles indicate damaged landscapes, renaturation and structural change. This exhibition with the challenging title GREEN CITY visualizes the unusual and complex networked landscape of the Ruhr region through an artistic perspective. The topics of ecology, climate, environmental protection and energy are not only of socio-political importance, but have also long played a central role in the work of numerous artists.

The LUDWIGGALERIE presents a spectrum of this idiosyncratic artistic activity, with works by regional artists as well as internationally renowned positions. Critically examining works show rivers and streets. Outdoor settings shape the landscape sculpturally or with color. Photographic series look at the reconquest of spaces by nature. The work is done with natural and industrial materials, across genres and experimentally. Even the actually invisible electric current can become an art object!
Works of art in the immediate vicinity of the LUDWIGGALERIE also open the museum space to the outside world.

This extensive overview exhibition presents the work of one of Germany's most prominent photographers. Herlinde Koelbl, who lives near Munich, discovered her passion for photography in the mid-1970s. From the very beginning, she showed a special feeling for people, unusual subjects and her approach to working on long-term projects. The German Living Room was her first published book in 1980 and is now considered one of the classics of German photography history. More than a dozen volumes were to follow, as well as numerous awards, international teaching assignments and exhibitions.
But it would be too simplistic to see Herlinde Koelbl solely as a photographer. Many of her projects include extensive text and interview work. Films and video installations complete her work. The German Living Room she lets the people portrayed have their say. Jewish Portraits from 1989, the comprehensive answers of the “last generation of Jewish Germans who were born into the fruitful German-Jewish symbiosis – and who then had to witness its destruction” are an inseparable part of the work and bear witness to questions about tradition, homeland or religion. Herlinde Koelbl’s deep interest in people is also evident in the series on children, men or  Strong WomenHer perhaps best-known project is the long-term study Traces of Power. In 1991, she began this study, which was initially planned to last eight years, and during her annual visits she observed how office and responsibility, public attention and the pressure to succeed changed people. The images of Joschka Fischer, Gerhard Schröder and especially Angela Merkel have become an integral part of German visual memory.

“Ritzeratze! – full of malice / A gap in the bridge.” In the autumn of 1864, Wilhelm Busch completed his most famous picture story: Max and MoritzThese bad boy pranks are now seen as the birth of the German comic. With Streich auf Streich, the LUDWIGGALERIE is now showing the first major overview of the history and development of comics in the German-speaking world. Divided into 15 chapters (pranks), the Germans' favorite comics are presented in almost 300 original drawings and over 60 first prints.
father and son, Nick Knatterton, Fix and Foxi, mecki or  Strizz then populate Oberhausen Castle. Ralf König is with The Moving Man as well as Walter Moers' cult figure of little asshole. This first comic retrospective also provides exciting insights into the current local comic scene. Avant-garde works by Hendrik Dorgathen and Anke Feuchtenberger are followed by the artistically ambitious graphic novels by Isabel Kreitz and Reinhard Kleist. And the latest developments, such as Germangas based on the Japanese model, superhero comics for the US market and web comics, are also part of the exhibition.
They make it clear that German-language comics are more diverse and of higher quality than ever before. Over the past 150 years, they have continually gained in innovative power.

Eve Arnold (1912 – 2012) is one of the most important photographers of the 20th century. She began her photographic career as an autodidact with a Rolleicord camera in the late 1940s and joined the legendary photo agency MAGNUM in 1957 – as one of the first women to do so. She became famous for her unusual fashion shots in Harlem and her political reportages. But her sensitive observations of life just beginning and the photographs of her travels to Afghanistan, China and India also demonstrate her unique and deeply humanistic visual language.
In addition to her travel photographs, Eve Arnold has written photography history with her sensitive portraits of film stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and Joan Crawford. She photographed Monroe and co. for over fifty years.
Eve Arnold is convincing as a quiet and sensitive observer who always steps back behind her photographic subjects in order to capture the 'decisive moment' - in the spirit of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Her pictures appear in major and well-known photo and fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and LIFE. The LUDWIGGALERIE is now dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the grande dame of photojournalism, who died in London in 2012 shortly before her 100th birthday. The focus of the Oberhausen show is on travel photographs from Afghanistan, China, India and South Africa as well as her photographic portrait studies of Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Isabella Rossellini and other well-known faces of the 20th century.

Even during his lifetime, Andy Warhol was more popular than almost any other artist - he created symbols and icons that are still valid today, and his visual aesthetics have a lasting impact on daily life. Inspired by the mass media and everyday culture, Warhol's work provided decisive impulses for the development of art from the 1960s onwards. At the same time as Roy Lichtenstein, Warhol used motifs from the print media and mass products such as Campbell's soup cans for his art. He removed everyday objects from their environment, placed them prominently in the picture and thus formulated the everyday into art. He found his motifs in the current media, art history, architecture and nature. During this time, Warhol discovered the screen printing process for himself. It was only through the screen printing technique that the artist was able to remove any handwritten features from his work, thus breaking away from traditional painting and still developing his unmistakable style.
The focus of the exhibition is on Warhol's prints, especially those from his early years. Within the exhibition, prints such as Electric Chair, Campbell's Soup and the Flash folder, portraits of Marilyn, Mao and the Annunciation after Leonardo da Vinci present Warhol's unusual working methods. The exhibition focuses primarily on the graphic artist Warhol, but also includes canvas works such as Portrait of a Lady. His presence within the music scene of the time and the filmmaker Warhol are also referenced. The record covers he designed are on display, as are original screenplays. The documentary photographs taken by Leo Weisse in 1971 make the artist's self-staging tangible. The photographer accompanied Warhol on his promotional tour for the film Trash in Germany.

For thousands of years, hair has held a special fascination for people of all cultures. It was considered the seat of the soul, symbolized the vitality of a person, or served as a central carrier of erotic messages. Hair plays a special role in all religions of the world, showing humility by shaving the head, or increasing closeness to God through real hair on crucifixes in the Christian Middle Ages. Fertility or loss of power is reflected in lush or cut hair. Status, gender or group affiliation is signaled by open or covered hair with its hairstyle or the shape of the cap. The color of hair ranges in evaluation from the red of the traitorous Judas and membership of the witches' brood to the seductive blonde of Mary Magdalene and Marilyn Monroe to the deep black of the femme fatale. The curls of loved ones were kept as a sign of friendship. The art of the 20th and 21st centuries is rediscovering hair for itself. Repulsively staged or aimed at lust, astonishing in a broken context or fitting into everyday life, hair can now appear in many different forms. There seem to be no limits to the metamorphoses.
Based on the rich holdings of the Peter and Irene Ludwig Collection, the show traces how artists have interpreted hair over the centuries. This exhibition project takes particular account of Peter and Irene Ludwig's idea of ​​continually placing their works of art in new contexts and bringing them together with other works from other collections.

Arthur Fellig (1899–1968), who adopted the self-confident synonym Weegee – The Famous, is one of the unusual positions in American photography of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He became famous for his nighttime photos of fires, accidents and murders, as well as his observations of homeless people and outlaws. In 1910, the family emigrated to America from Zloczew in what is now Poland. After various unskilled work and darkroom jobs, he became self-employed as a press photographer in the mid-30s. In 1938, he was the first to be granted the privilege of officially being allowed to listen in on police radio. He installed the device in his car and was often at the crime scene before the police. He set up a makeshift darkroom in the back of the car, so that his photos were usually the first ever to report on murder and manslaughter, fire and prostitution. This type of work makes him one of the most famous visual chroniclers of this – still black and white – brutal era.
The images are characterized by harsh lighting with frightening immediacy and drastic realism. His bright flash often creates “pale night figures,” visually highlighting the darkness as his primary working time.
In over 100 photographs, the exhibition presents this realist, who was an exemplary and influential figure for many photographers, directors and filmmakers who followed him. Weegee called his first exhibition during his lifetime "Murder is my business". In addition to the pictures of crime scenes and perpetrators, the Oberhausen show also includes pictures of celebrities and stars such as Jackie Kennedy and Salvador Dali.

Cornelia Funke is one of the great German storytellers - with words and with a pencil. The trained illustrator began her career with drawings for other people's texts, then quickly realized that she could probably invent stories just as well (or even better!) and increasingly switched to writing. She began writing her own stories in the late 1980s with Kein Keks für Kobolde and other children's books. Series such as Gespensterjäger and Die wilden Hühner made her a favorite of young audiences. She became internationally known with Der Herr der Thiebe and finally the Inkworld trilogy.
Although she has limited her drawing in recent years in favor of writing, the originals clearly show what an imaginative image inventor she is. The early illustrations are usually very colorful and rich in figures, in the later books she often restricts herself to - very fine - black ink or chalk or graphite drawings that introduce the chapters. The Dorsten native's adopted home of America is reflected in some of her latest drawings.
For the first time, Cornelia Funke's graphic work is presented from the beginning to the most recent works from Reckless, accompanied by an extensive catalogue. Here it becomes clear that Cornelia Funke is one of those rare dual talents who can transport people to new worlds in an imaginative and original way using words and pictures. She not only inspires children and young people, but also captivates an adult audience. Numerous film adaptations of her books also open up new visual worlds in this medium.

Ulf K.'s characters are lovable outsiders who believe in their own imagination. His stories infect you with a fascination that is hard to resist.
The artist and illustrator, born in Oberhausen in 1969 with the real name Ulf Keyenburg, is one of the most renowned in Germany. In 2004, Ulf K. was awarded the Max and Moritz Prize as the best German-speaking comic artist at the International Comic Salon in Erlangen. His publications appear worldwide.
Ulf K. was particularly influenced by Franco-Belgian comics, such as Hergé's Tintin, but he quickly developed his own style. His style is highly recognizable due to clear, reduced lines and flat, single-color coloring in the tradition of ligne claire.
His comics often convey a slightly morbid to melancholic mood or even have death as the main character, as in the recently reissued Tango de la Mort (2000/2012). They are often spiced with a pinch of black humor.
He creates illustrated stories and also ones that work without words. The spectrum ranges from comics for adults to children's and school books to board picture books for ages two to four.
The exhibition presents the work in its entirety with well over 200 coloured originals, hand drawings and sketches. Both early drawings and the comic album are on display The Moongazer, which was self-published in 1998, as well as the current children's book series from Gerstenberg Verlag.

Marilyn Monroe is one of the most photographed women in the world. She was discovered as a model at an early age. In 1949, Tom Kelley captured the charms of the young Marilyn, but they were not published until 1952 for a highly successful calendar. In 1953, one of the photos even made it to the centerfold of the first issue of Playboy.
Milton H. Greene met Marilyn that year. The two were close friends for a few short years and founded their company, Marilyn Monroe Productions Inc. In 1953, Greene was commissioned to photograph Marilyn for the Christmas issue of Look. Countless other pictures were taken until contact was lost in 1957, probably around the time of her marriage to Arthur Miller.
The focus of the exhibition is on the photographs taken by Bert Stern, who in 1962, just a few weeks before Marilyn's death, carried out a photo shoot for Vogue entitled The Last Sitting became known. Stern's photos present Marilyn in a haunting density and, at times, in great intimacy. The last photo of this shoot, taken by Stern's assistant Leif-Eric Nygård, completes the series.
Cosmopolitan magazine was also interested in the actress in the summer of 1962. George Barris carried out a three-day photo shoot on Santa Monica Beach on her behalf, and the photos from the shoot with the wool sweater can be seen. And finally, Allan Grant's photos for the glossy magazine Life were said to be among the last pictures of Marilyn and are represented here with a prominent example.
An exhibition in collaboration with Ina Brockmann and Peter Reichelt, Mannheim.

It's getting private! - The LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen dares to take a look into the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom and even the bedroom. Living in the Ruhr area, many people still think of workers' housing and Gelsenkirchen baroque. This show shows how varied and multicultural artists see the Ruhr area metropolis. It is not the cultural-historical approach that is of interest, but the artistic view of, through and behind keyholes.
Full rooms and empty rooms, rooms that are shaped by people and those in which objects seem to develop a life of their own, all of this can be observed in sometimes curious ways. Anna and Bernhard Blume experiment in their Trauten HeimJulia Arztmann and Barbara Deblitz irritate with mysterious objects from the supposed everyday life. Mischa Kuballs New Pott and the series neighborhood by Sebastian Mölleken and Oliver Blobel examine the topic of home. Laurenz Berges and Jörg Winde, on the other hand, confront abandonment and emptiness.
And also in the medium of film – in cooperation with the blicke Film Festival of the Ruhr Area – new insights emerge into what seems familiar. The association Culture in the Tower is working on an installation specially created for the exhibition.

The ivory body, carved in the finest of techniques, conveys its terrifying message: the transience of life, the decay of the flesh. Swarming worms are a sign of man's sinfulness. Toads and snakes represent creatures from hell, and flies - the devil's stuff - even take the place of the heart. The body is embedded in a box decorated with inlays in ivory and ebony, which allows a view through the openwork side walls even when the lid is closed. The cabinet exhibition is dedicated to this unique work of remembrance culture from the Peter and Irene Ludwig collection.
The precious ivory death figure is complemented by a three-dimensional depiction of the Basel Dance of Death. The so-called Zizenhausen figures, small groups of sculptures made of clay, depict the most popular and well-known of the medieval dances of death in a three-dimensional way. Death spares neither king nor monk, neither duchess nor painter.
Numerous graphics, including those by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, Hendrick Goltzius, Marco Dente and Matthias Merian, show how much people in the early modern period and the centuries that followed were preoccupied with the themes of death and redemption, damnation and resurrection and how this was reflected in images. The wonderful little bone creature finds its morbid context here.
The exhibition was made possible through cooperation with the Museum Schnütgen Cologne, the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen and the Graphic Collection Man and Death at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

The tall tales of the captain with the blue fur are just as legendary as the politically incorrect behavior of the boy who has the word "little asshole" in his name. And with the character of Adolf, the Nazi pig, he breaks the last great taboo: Walter Moers, illustrator and author with exuberant inventiveness. Moers lives out his boundless imagination on his new continent, which he calls Zamonia and which is populated by many different forms of existence such as colored bears and eydeets, fhernhachen and wolpertingers, booklings and shark maggots, or scratches and scares. A universe of a special class that has chosen literature and reading, the play with words and sentences, as one of its main themes. The images of this idiosyncratic fantasy world give a deep insight into the imagination of the doubly gifted author and, like his texts, show a large repertoire of art historical as well as literary knowledge.
Walter Moers showed his great interest in spinning seaman's yarns when he created one of his first characters, the blue grandpa bear and his three grandchildren for the show "Sendung mit der Maus". In addition to this work for television, Moers became known for his comics, especially "Das kleine Arschloch". A reduced drawing style with huge noses is Moers' trademark. At the end of the 1990s he turned away from comics, and only "Adolf - Der Bonker" was drawn after that, accompanied by a music video.
For the first time, an exhibition is devoted to the work of the illustrator and author Walter Moers, born in Mönchengladbach in 1957, in all its facets. Well over 200 works in the form of drawings, sketches, paintings, sculptures, puppets, films, including unpublished works, present one of Germany's most important storytellers in his media breadth.

The well-known Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt, born in 1928, is showing an overview of his work in the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen. Dogs and children, groups and nudes, museums and landscapes - no one is safe from his tongue-in-cheek and humorous gaze. The exhibition provides an insight into all phases of his work in almost 140 photographs. The well-known dog images that have become icons of photography are represented, as are subjects that have yet to be discovered. The fact that the barking four-legged friends play a very special role in his oeuvre - in addition to Elliott's personal preference - had its origins in an order for a fashion series on women's shoes. He decided to take the photos from the dogs' perspective, as no one gets to see as many shoes as the dogs.
"I am serious about not being serious," says Erwitt about himself. People and animals are the focus of his work. Numerous trips have taken him all over the world, and some of his reportage photos still shape our image of historical events today. In 1953 he joined the Magnum agency, co-founded by Robert Capa, and later became its president. He was represented with three photos in Edward Steichen's legendary photo exhibition The Family of Man in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Numerous exhibitions and, above all, various illustrated books on his topics have been put together by the French-born American with Russian parents. In addition to free photography - Erwitt calls these his "personal pictures" - and numerous reportages, the grand master of black and white has also had a lasting influence on fashion and advertising photography.
In collaboration with Magnum Photos.

The focus of this very high-quality one-room exhibition is the so-called candlestick or chandelier woman from the Peter and Irene Ludwig collection. Probably created around 1540 in northern Switzerland, it either comes from the town hall of Rapperswil or hung in the home of the clients Thüring Göldlin and Margareta Muntprat. Surrounded by the proud antlers of a fourteen-point crowned stag, the figure holds the couple's alliance coat of arms.
Numerous valuable loans illustrate the context of the piece. For the first time in over 20 years, Albrecht Dürer's delicate drawing of a dragon chandelier will be on display together with Veit Stoß's completed version. One of the youngest surviving female chandeliers and a late male chandelier, along with other sculptures, paintings and graphics, illustrate the unique dual structure of natural object and work of art of this wondrous genre.
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen

The LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen is showing Janosch, one of the most important and popular illustrators and storytellers in Germany. In a very extensive show with over 200 works, the artist is presented in original watercolors, gouaches, draft drawings and etchings. The designs make it clear how closely the image and the story are interwoven. They provide an in-depth insight into the artistic creative process of the internationally renowned storyteller with the drawing pen.
Janosch, born Horst Eckert in Upper Silesia in 1931, published over 300 (children's) books, which have been translated into 40 languages. Therefore, his tigers, bears and lions are very familiar to both young and old. Bear and tiger have not only shown us what courage is and that Panama can be on our doorstep, but also how important friendship is. The stories of Schnuddel, Kasper Mütze and Günter Kastenfrosch contain messages that not only encourage children to think in a playful way. Janosch succeeds in conveying values ​​across generations, stimulating the imagination and making people laugh.
Far away from Panama, however, there are other worlds in his oeuvre that are less well known. Janosch deals with the criticism of the institution of the church and shows the network of relationships between men and women in exaggerated depictions. When the real and the fantastic merge in the Panama universe and the other worlds, the Janosch phenomenon becomes clear in its entirety.

In this unusual presentation, the Ludwig Gallery is showing an extensive exhibition on the artistic use of the table for the 2010 Capital of Culture year. The internationally branched, high-quality collections of Peter and Irene Ludwig form the starting point. A panopticon of tables unfolds unusual perspectives. Antique vessels, medieval (altar) tables or still lifes from the 17th century are confronted with trends from the 20th and 21st centuries. With, next to and against each other, the positions testify to the most diverse approaches. There is no cultural-historical research into table culture, rather it is a visualization of inner connections that often initially show very different appearances.
The everyday object of the table is used here for the first time to present artistic approaches that sometimes show great distance, sometimes astonishing proximity. While the chair is and always was the design object par excellence, the table plays a more auxiliary, incidental role. And yet it combines many things in and on itself. The still life is the only genre that makes it the main character. Otherwise, it is perhaps precisely the casualness of its appearance that makes the table stand out. This is the first time that an exhibition has addressed this topic across time and genre and, with the help of masterpieces from the Ludwig collection, has set out to search for the inner structure, the essence of the fundamental possibilities.
The range of interest extends from the decorative fine porcelain services of the Ludwig Collection to Renato Guttuso’s funeral meal, which unites Picasso and his world. Campbell's soup cans belong on the table just as much as the large antique skyphos or the Attic eye bowl. Ritual acts (altar table) play a role, as do everyday areas. David Hockney gives an insight into his drawing studio, Albrecht Dürer presents the study chamber of St. Jerome.

His bulbous nose is his trademark, the observation of (homo)erotic interactions is his content: The Ludwig Gallery is dedicating the first large and comprehensive exhibition ever to Ralf König. He has won international awards and his comics have been translated into 15 languages. Now, for the first time, an overview of his work can be seen in the original.
Moving men and stutenkerle, cream puffs and lemon rolls romp through his stories and have made Ralf König not only the most important German comic artist, but also the most important figure in the gay movement's appeal. In 1986, "The Moving Man" made him known to a wider, increasingly heterosexual audience. His comics have been made into films or successfully performed as puppet shows. Time and again, König has drawn on classic literary material, such as "Lysistrata" - based on Aristophanes or "Iago" - based on Shakespeare. He approached the subject of AIDS in Superparadise-Side Effects. And in 1993 he also packed his own (short) biography into a cheeky drawn story... and with ease.
In Prototyp and  Archetyp, his two most recent books, he provides an insight into the bulbous-nosed story of creation as well as the construction and activities around and on Noah's Ark. Here he turns to the topic of religion and deals with the stories of the Bible in a very idiosyncratic way. König has expressed his criticism of the cartoon controversy and Islam, thereby clearly taking a stand for freedom of opinion and freedom of the press. In 2006 he received the "Max and Moritz Prize" in Erlangen for this. In addition to the comic strips, large-format works by Ralf König are shown, most of which were created especially for the Oberhausen presentation.

Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz and AR Penck are undoubtedly among the most important protagonists of painting in Germany. In recent decades, their imagery has shaped and continues to shape the visual arts, even beyond Germany. Peter and Irene Ludwig acquired early drawings from all three artists for their collection, which allow us to understand the development that led Baselitz, Lüpertz and Penck to their themes and forms.
At the end of the 1950s, Baselitz turned away from gestural forms and towards figures. Almost organic-looking people and individual body parts characterize this phase. Heroes and "New Types" followed, reaching a programmatic high point with the "Great Friends". In the late 1960s, Baselitz began to rotate his motifs.

With the dithyramb, Markus Lüpertz introduced a form into art in 1964 that, due to its extremely physical effect, suggests representational associations, but cannot be classified as such. His drawings show the path to this. Other groups illustrate the development of his well-known pictorial objects. Cloaks, helmets, snails, dragons and fish populate the drawings, while the "style pictures" are characterized by their own form.
The development of AR Penck's sign system can also be seen in the drawings from the Ludwig collection. Even in his early system images, Penck was interested in the importance of signs in conveying information.
The exhibition, which was created in cooperation with the Ludwig Forum for International Art and the Ludwig Foundation in Aachen, provides the first insight into the international graphic holdings of the Ludwig Collection from Western and Eastern Europe as well as from Asia and Cuba.

"The eighth of a second seems to me like the blink of an eye in classic photography," says Jim Rakete, one of the best-known German photographers. He takes his portraits with a plate camera, a technology from the early days of photography. In his impressive portraits, the Berliner provides insight into the world of film and music, art and dance, literature and politics.
The portraits show "familiar strangers" and the list of names reads like a who's who of public life. It is important to Rakete to capture his protagonists without makeup and as people in the picture. Heino Ferch, relaxed with a cup of coffee, Christiane Paul, heavily pregnant at the hectic train station, next to Helmut Schmidt with the inevitable cigarette. In a melancholy gesture, the artist Jörg Immendorff smells a carnation.
The music scene, which Jim Rakete has played a key role in shaping as a manager, is not only represented by Nena and Ulla Meinecke, but also by Silvermoon and  We are Heroes. Some of the rare color photographs, featuring Nadja Auermann and Polina Semionova, shed light on this part of his work. Rakete's hidden fondness for rabbits is not only visible on the back of the photography book of the same name.
The LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen is showing around 130 of these impressive portraits. The pictures are a quick run-through of the influential people from many areas of life (music, film, politics and sport, art) with a very slow (plate) camera, says Jim Rakete. A homage to silver photography was created, whose era is just coming to an end. To give an impression of the simple working atmosphere of this type of photography, the exhibition includes a studio situation in which the trusty plate camera, the crumpled background from some of the photos and a few original plates can also be seen.

The image of man has undergone an intensive transformation since the modern era. The avant-garde is dealing with innovative forms of representation and breaking new ground. The exhibition sheds light on this phenomenon. Starting with Edvard Munch's early masterpiece Madonna, the exhibition extends to the pop icons of Andy Warhol.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's dance figures develop their intricate rhythms, the figures of the Brücke artists such as Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff, Pechstein and Müller differentiate forms of representation. Nolde, Kandinsky, Dix and Beckmann introduce a changed image of man, as do Egon Schiele's lascivious nudes.
Picasso created a wide range of new forms of human depiction, from the austere meal to the pictures of jugglers, his works range from the prismatic style of cubism to historical variations and experimental white line prints. Various portraits of his partners provide insights into private relationships.
Andy Warhol's pop icons mark an artistic end point in the stylization of the human image in the 20th century. Alongside tickets, flowers and cows, the figure dominates as an art object worthy of representation. Warhol has had a significant influence on our view of film icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor and Jane Fonda.
In partly large-format, colored prints, proofs and unique pieces, the exhibition shows the changes from figure to icon in masterful images and impresses on the three floors of the Ludwig Gallery with the image of man in the 20th century.

There are photographs by Thomas Hoepker that have become firmly anchored in our visual memory: the famine in India (1951), lepers in Ethiopia (1963), Muhammad Ali's Boxidol (1966), the training of US Marine recruits (1970) and New York on September 11, 2001. These images were not only intended to illustrate the text, but were part of exciting multi-page photo reports, the liveliness of which arose entirely from the visual expressiveness of the photographs.
What still moves us today in Hoepker's pictures is his "human perspective". He is not a sensationalist photo reporter, but a curious and sensitive observer. Hoepker's pictures are in the tradition of "human interest photography" with which we associate the names Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and others, whose photographic approach was particularly shaped by the work of the legendary photo agency MAGNUM, of which Hoepker has been a member since 1989.
Thomas Hoepker's retrospective not only shows the curiosity and intensity with which he repeatedly engaged with the human dramas of world events, but also how he searched for the most appropriate forms of expression for the various photographic tasks.
The exhibition was developed by Thomas Hoepker in collaboration with MAGNUM Photos Paris and the Photo Museum in the Munich City Museum.

Brazen taboo breaking, caustic mockery, unbridled lust for the flesh and baroque sensuality are the trademarks of the Austrian satirist Manfred Deix. Fat, pompous and mean, his characters caricature the "healthy popular sentiment". Politicians, police officers, priests, pedophiles, perverts, prostitutes, tourists, foreigners, the unemployed and neo-Nazis - we find them all in his bulging cosmos of images.
When looking at these pictures in the exhibition, one initially thinks that the people he drew are monstrous figments of his imagination, until one is later surprised to discover that the people on the street really do all look like they were drawn by Deix. "The satire of our reality," says Deix, "has long since surpassed the imagination of a caricaturist." He therefore does not see himself as an "exaggerator," but rather as a "beautifier" and "trivializer" of everyday real-life satire - as a cartoonist who wants to "enjoy spreading some beauty among the people."
The Ludwig Gallery is showing 200 original drawings by Deix – including his new biography of Arnold Schwarzenegger “The Ugly Truth”.
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Caricature Museum Krems and the Wilhelm Busch Museum Hannover.

It was Wilhelm Busch in particular who taught pictures to walk with his legendary picture stories about Max and Moritz, the pious Helene, Plisch and Plum, Hans Huckebein, Fips the monkey and others. What still fascinates us today about the comics “Little Nemo” by Winsor McCay and the early Disney films “Silly Symphonies” – Wilhelm Busch invented this moving world of images. He no longer tried to express his stories in one picture like the artists before him, but told them in a sequence of pictures whose furious dramaturgy draws the viewer into the action in a suggestive way: the viewpoint and perspective, long shot and close-up, obsession with detail and the power of his dynamic lines constantly change.
His painting was also absolutely modern. Franz Marc called Wilhelm Busch the “first futurist” because with his furious brushstrokes he took away any inner stability from the pictures and transformed them into an all-moving body of color.
His pictures do not idealize, but rather caricature, deform, distort, parody the ideal and expose the good to ridicule. "Heartache and Noseache" shows that caricature thrives on malice, spite and malicious glee.
In addition to the masterpieces of Wilhelm Busch, works by: Callot, Carracci, Gillray, Rowlandson, Hogarth, Grandville, Toepffer, Dirks, McCay, Disney, Heine, Flora, Pericoli, Searle, Sempé, Topor, Ungerer and others are shown.
Cooperation partner of the exhibition: Wilhelm-Busch-Museum Hannover

The exhibition brings to life the fascinating variety of relationships between the world of forms in nature and art. The stones from over 2 billion years ago and the photographs by Albert Renger-Patzsch, Alfred Ehrhardt and Karl Blossfeldt show that nature and art are equally permeated by the forces of creative form.
“Living Stones” begins with a cultural-historical prologue: a medieval rock crystal cross and rock crystal specimen, ancient Chinese scholar stones and bizarre stone shapes. The juxtaposition of important works of art and precious stones from the Ludwig Collection makes the differences in the European and Far Eastern understanding of nature visible.
Albert Renger-Patzsch's late work "Rock", comprising 64 photographs, shows the cycle of birth and death that has been taking place for billions of years - the "growth phases" of the earth's rock. The photographs by Renger-Patzsch, Blossfeldt and Ehrhardt stand in exciting contrast to the unique rock finds and crystals. As only works of art are otherwise presented, the stones in the exhibition are presented as precious, creative forms of nature. As the viewer penetrates their beauty with all of his senses, the stones begin to tell a story. Because each of them has its own biography, like the large iron-nickel meteorite that fell to earth 30000 years ago, which comes from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and was born with the solar system 4,5 billion years ago.
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Ruhr Museum Essen, the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Collection, Zülpich and the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation, Cologne. The lenders of the cultural-historical works are: Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, Cologne, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen.

The exhibition shows works from three unique art collections: photographs by Karl Blossfeldt from the Ann and Jürgen Wilde collection in Zülpich, Romanesque flower capitals from the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne and old plant books from the Bamberg State Library. As varied as the material in which these depictions were created by artists, craftsmen and scientists over a period of almost 1000 years is, they all sing the "hymn" to the creative powers of nature.
Karl Blossfeldt photographed the world of plants at 2 to 40 times magnification to illustrate that art history has grown out of the forms of nature: the photo of the ostrich fern and a golden bishop's staff, the leaf of the saxifrage and a Gothic rose window, an acanthus plant and a medieval tapestry.
For the first time, this exhibition presents Blossfeldt's photographs together with Romanesque capitals from the 10th to 13th centuries. It combines the awe and curiosity of artists and scientists towards the creative forces of nature over a period of 1000 years.
In the old herbal and plant books, each plant is precisely depicted in words and pictures and its use as food, medicine or poison is described, but at the same time the illustrations always try to portray the plant as a unique creation in a dignified and magnificent way. These artists and scientists were equally concerned with knowledge and edification.

The exhibition presents 130 masterpieces of arts and crafts from 5000 years from the Peter and Irene Ludwig collections as well as other important museums and private collections. The ancient Egyptian children's urn, the Greek belly amphora, the Iranian donation vessel, the pre-Columbian figurine vessel, the ancient Chinese standing amphora, the Korean calabash, the medieval chalice. The fascination of the masterpieces of arts and crafts shown in the exhibition makes it understandable that these vessels were once mysterious, life-giving and life-destroying forces, in whose anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, biomorphic and geomorphic shapes the energies of nature and man were enclosed. A pantheistic worldview permeates the world of vessels, which was forgotten in modern times, as was the central role that the vessels had in matriarchal culture and art.
The vessel has undergone a variety of metamorphoses since then. Unique porcelain and faience from Meissen, Delft and Strasbourg show how, in the splendour of the Baroque and Rococo periods, the vessel was transformed from a universal symbol of creativity into a graceful, delicate table decoration of the highest artistic skill.
Masterpieces of ceramics by Pablo Picasso are at the end of the exhibition. After the Art Nouveau reform movement, he played a key role in giving new impetus to ceramics, which had degenerated into arts and crafts in the 19th century.

The exhibition shows Oberhausen in a way that no one would expect from an industrial city: administrative and residential buildings stand in a sea of ​​trees - like in a park; precious tree-lined avenues penetrate the city like a network of green veins. What was created in the center of Oberhausen from 1900 to the 1930s was the realization of a great urban planning utopia of modern architecture: the center of the city itself was turned into a park.
The city architect Ludwig Freitag not only succeeded in inspiring the best architects of the Berlin and Darmstadt schools to create masterpieces of brick expressionist architecture, but these buildings have grown together with the parks and tree-lined avenues to form a unique whole of fascinating rhythmic movement.
The restoration of the historic Park City of Oberhausen looks back at the same time far into the future: The Park City was developed with the aim of creating a “healthy urban body with a network of radiating avenues and green spaces as powerful arteries and lungs”.

For over ten years, Gerhard Haderer has been drawing his fascinating caricatures every week for the magazines "Stern" and "Profil". Haderer does not see himself as a caricaturist, but as a realist. With his meticulous powers of observation, he shows us what we really look like, or more precisely: what our eager striving to be contemporary, fit and dynamic has done to our faces and bodies, our souls and our environment.
And it all always starts so beautifully: the shiny surface full of preciously painted details practically lures us into his pictures. But Haderer doesn't allow us to make ourselves comfortable in it. Curiosity soon turns to horror, because what he draws in such lovingly Biedermeier style turns out, on closer inspection, to be the hectic, everyday madness of our reality: obsession with beauty, obsession with fitness, holiday stress, family coziness, food addiction, TV addiction, cell phone mania, obsession with technology, lust for scandal, lust for pain, destructive rage, gigantomania and egomania. Haderer's drawings do not show us as pitiful victims, but as fanatical participants who enthusiastically put all their life energy into this daily madness. Haderer's drawings show that Neil Postman's vision: "We are amusing ourselves to death" is no longer a prophecy, but reality.
The exhibition shows 140 original drawings and caricatures, including the picture story “The Life of Jesus,” which caused a scandal in Austria last year for “hurting religious feelings.” The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover.

Nadja Auermann, Milla Jovovich, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Kristen McMenamy, Amber Valletta and Marie-Sophie Wilson are some of the supermodels and stars that Peter Lindbergh has made into icons of our time in his photographs. What in the past was longingly worshipped and cursed as goddesses, saints and Amazons, witches and fairies, Peter Lindbergh has reborn in the form of his supermodels through his photographic imagination. The enigmatic, sphinx-like quality of his images of women is their inner contradiction: strong women who are also fragile. In the latest Lindbergh book "STORIES", which gave the exhibition its title, Wim Wenders describes these women as strong but unprotected, full of devotion but untouchable, familiar and alien at the same time. Using the means of expression of fashion photography, Peter Lindbergh stages his stories in the most unusual places in the world. He lets his models act in the midst of the enormous industrial backdrops of the steelworks in Duisburg, the jagged rock massifs at Zabriskie Point, in the streets of Manhattan and on the deserted beaches of California. These are end-time landscapes that, due to the artificiality of the creatures that unfold within them, become the setting for modern myths that are both real and fairytale-like. The focus of the exhibition is Peter Lindbergh's story "Invasion", a fantastic modern apocalypse about the arrival of extraterrestrials on planet Earth.
“STORIES” is the most comprehensive retrospective of Peter Lindbergh’s work to date. The 204 mostly large-format photographs are being shown for the first time in this exhibition together with his expressive documentaries, such as the film about Pina Bausch, and his impressive commercial advertisements.

The exhibition is the first to show masterpieces of ancient and contemporary Chinese art. It makes the cultural tension in which Chinese culture moves today perceptible: between the awe-inspiring art that has grown out of the forces of tradition over thousands of years and a cultural upheaval driven by the busy energies of economic progress that calls into question all traditional notions of value and beauty.
Unique works such as the nine-part chime from the Zhou period (8th century BC) and the group of ceramic camels from the Tang Dynasty (8th century AD) show that ancient Chinese art was characterized by both the highest spiritual internalization and exciting expressiveness. The contact with these works of art from different millennia in this exhibition can therefore help us Europeans to better understand the enormous contradictions between tradition and modernity that are taking place in China today.
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne, the Museum Ludwig Cologne, the Ludwig Forum for International Art Aachen and the China National Museum of Fine Arts Beijing.

In masterpieces of painting, sculpture, graphics, poster art and photography we encounter old and new images of gods from a wide variety of cultures: the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, the Olympic athlete, the "enlightened" Buddha, the holy virgin, Aphrodite and the Indian goddess Sita, the medieval knight and the "terrifying" Fudó, but also the gifted actress Sarah Bernardt, the "divine" Garbo, the rock idol Elvis Presley and superstar Michael Jackson.
All the gods, heroes, idols, saints, witches, demons are the immortal role models that have been resurrected in the pantheon of our modern trivial culture, the everyday world of images in film, photography, comics and television, and that have retained their unbroken fascination in people's everyday lives thanks to their millions of distributions in electronic image communication, awakening passions, keeping demons away from us, fulfilling expectations of salvation, maintaining the above and the below, separating good from evil in a world in which heaven has long been depopulated by gods and we have become accustomed to seeing deeds and experiences in cyberspace as more real than in meaningless everyday life.
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig, the Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, the Museum Ludwig Cologne, the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne, the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen and others.